[kemiller2002]

There is a whole lot of accounting magic, and forecasting that goes on. They know that they won't get a lot of it, but there are several things they do to "mitigate" their "loss". They get to write it off on their taxes. They'll often sell unpaid debts to 3rd party debt buyers. They'll get some money out of bankruptcy etc.

[empath75]

A lot of hospitals own debt collection agencies and if that doesn’t make you angry, I don’t know what to tell you.

[conanbatt]

vertical integration FTW